


the songs we used to play

by toastweasel



Series: the feeling never fades out my body [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Background Korrasami - Freeform, F/F, I REGRET NOTHING, Slow Burn, also cw for alcohol being drunk, cw for usage of lilyweed and lin being snide about it, i fell headlong back into my Korra fandom bullshit, mentions of past Tenzin/Lin and Lin/Bumi II, old ladies in love, so tldr grunkle Ty is here with LOK fanfic like its 2012 or some shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:35:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26213488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toastweasel/pseuds/toastweasel
Summary: [Spoilers for s3 through Turf Wars]There hadn’t been time for a proper reunion.Before Harmonic Convergence, Kya had been too busy to say much more than hello to Republic City’s chief of police as they all bustled about, trying to stop Unalaq from destroying the world. And after that…well. Everyone knew that story by now.It was only now, with Zaheer captured and the rest of the Red Lotus dead, that they finally had a moment to breathe.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Kya II
Series: the feeling never fades out my body [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918957
Comments: 102
Kudos: 342





	1. The Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Who could have predicted I'd be reviving my old, battered bones and writing Legend of Korra fanfic in 2020? Certainly not me, but here we are, I suppose. Weirder things have happened this year, no? Now back with 100% more homosexuality/bisexuality, because....well, duh. 
> 
> Heavy spoilers for s3/4/and the comics. Part 1 of a 3shot. Part 1 is set in the two weeks after the final battle with Zaheer and but before Jinora's anointment ceremony.
> 
> [Title from I'll Wait by Kygo]

There hadn’t been time for a proper reunion.

Before Harmonic Convergence, Kya had been too busy to say much more than hello to Republic City’s chief of police as they all bustled about, trying to stop Unalaq from destroying the world. And after that…well. Everyone knew that story by now.

It was only now, with Zaheer captured, and the rest of the Red Lotus dead, that they finally had a moment to breathe.

In Kya’s case, it was forced; the damage the Red Lotus had done to her body had been extensive, and she wasn’t as young as she used to be. It had only been a week and her body was still healing. After an extensive session with Korra, which left them both exhausted and Korra grouchier than an aggrieved tiger seal, Kya limped barefoot out into the courtyard for some much needed alone time.

She would have preferred to go down to the pier and stick her feet in the brackish water of the bay, but she simple couldn’t make it down the hillside unassisted. So instead she sat on one of the many rocks around the pond and slipped her throbbing ankle into the cool water there instead.

The koi fish that had lived in the pond bubbled up to the surface and looked at her hopefully with their doleful eyes. Their big mouths sucked at the water spangles and the tiny pieces of water lily that had come unmoored from their host plants, obviously hungry for food.

Kya looked down at them and smiled apologetically. “Sorry guys, I don’t have anything for you this time.”

The fish, being fish, did not respond, just milled around her feet, brushing her bare skin with their slimy scales. With a sigh, Kya waved her hand over the water and created a small bubble that encircled her bad ankle; it glowed as she sapped the pain from the joint, and she sighed in relief.

The fish drifted lazily away from the display, uninterested in the healing process. Kya watched them go, and it was only once the pain was down to a manageable level that let the bubble disintegrate and instead focused her attention out over the bay.

She saw the boat before she saw Lin, a small and tight little metal craft that zipped through the water from the cityside docks with all the purpose of its driver. By the time the metalbender had crested the top of the stairs, Kya had heaved herself to her feet and was leaning heavily on her crutch.

“Lin,” Kya said with a soft smile, tired but happy to see her. “I haven’t seen you since you got back. Are you here to see Tenzin?”

Lin nodded once, sharply. “We have a meeting about security for the anointment ceremony.”

Kya watched as Lin’s eyes swept over her, and then as he expression softened ever so imperceptibly. If Kya hadn’t known the younger woman since childhood, she never would have noticed.

“How’s the leg?” the chief of police asked gruffly.

“No longer broken, but still on the mend,” Kya said tiredly, shifting her weight again as the leg in question complained. “The healers set it, but waterbending can only do so much. I’m going to be crutching around for at least another week, maybe two.”

“And the others? Korra?”

Kya hesitated and glanced across the compound, involuntarily turning her gaze towards Korra’s room in the women’s dormitory. “Korra is…”

She trailed off.

Lin understood without her having to finish. “I see.” Her eyes flicked above them to the open shutters. “Is Tenzin in his office?”

“He is.” Kya looked at the sun where it was dipping slowly into the sky. “He’s probably waiting for you up there. Are you staying for dinner?”

Lin hesitated.

“Oh, you should,” Kya said warmly, and gestured back towards the family’s living quarters. “I feel like we haven’t really been able to catch up with the whole world on fire, and Pema’s making cauliflower curry and dumplings tonight.”

“I—”

“You know there’s always extra,” Kya prodded encouragingly. “Or we could snag you something from the dining hall—some of the newer recruits haven’t gone fully vegetarian yet.”

Lin sighed and looked uncertain. “I’ve got a lot of paperwork to do still back at the station.”

“That’s always your excuse,” the waterbender said playfully. “We all deserve a break after the shit we just dealt with. Come have dinner with us, like old times.”

“We’ll see how it goes, alright?” said Lin tiredly. “I’ll make no promises I don’t intend to keep.”

“Good enough for me,” Kya said, and waved her off towards Tenzin’s office. Lin went, her metal armor clinking in the quiet courtyard. As Lin disappeared into the tower, Kya gripped her crutch firmly and started for the kitchen to see if she could help with dinner. 

.

.

.

She could not help with dinner, as it turned out, because Pema immediately banished her to the table with the reminder that the healers had told her to _rest_ which mean she was to _sit at the table._

So Kya sat. She had been there about half an hour, supervising the tea, when Lin and Tenzin came in from the study. The dining room provided to be a crossroads; as they came in, Asami came out of the kitchen carrying a tray.

“Lin, it’s good to see you,” Asami said warmly, pausing for a moment on her way out the door. “Did Su and the others get back to Zaofu safely?”

“They landed yesterday,” Lin replied as she settled down on the floor next to Kya on the side of the table meant for guests. “Su wanted to get back as soon as possible.”

“That makes sense.” Asami glanced at the table, then back out the door she was leaving from. “I’ve got to take Korra her dinner, but I hope you’re around later. I’d love to catch up.”

A grimace flickered across Lin’s face at, presumably, Kya thought, at the idea of prolonged socializing after dinner.

Kya (badly) hide a snicker.

“Oh, shut up,” Lin told her as Asami left the room. The chief reached for the teapot to pour herself a cup of tea, but Kya beat her to it.

“Let me get that,” she said, and with a gentle twist of her fingers Kya bent the water from the pot and into the cups at the table.

“I can pour my own cup, thanks,” Lin practically growled, but picked up the cup and sipped it anyway.

Tenzin ignored their friendly squabbling and sat down at the head of the table. He waited for the expertly bent tea to stop sloshing merrily in his cup, then picked it up and sipped it. “Thank you, Kya. How are you feeling today?”

“I wish everyone would stop asking me that, I’m fine,” Kya said airily, wafting a hand back and forth. “I meditated, I watched the airbenders practice, I did a session with Korra, I soaked my ankle. Just another day back home.”

Lin shot her a look. “Should you be healing people when you aren’t even healed yourself?”

“You see any other master healers on this island?”

Lin was saved from responding by the rambunctious arrival of the airbending kids and their equally rambunctious uncle from an afternoon of training. Jinora immediately peeled away for the kitchen as the rest came to take their places at the table.

Bumi settled with a groan next to Kya on her other side. “Heya, Lin.”

“Bumi,” Lin said gruffly.

“Is Auntie Lin staying for dinner?” Ikki asked chirpily to her father.

“Don’t call me that,” Lin said grouchily just as Tenzin said, “Yes, she is.”

Meelo squinted suspiciously at Lin from across the table. “She never stays for dinner! I don’t trust her.”

“It’s just Lin, Meelo,” Tenzin said patiently. “She and I have some business to discuss regarding anointment ceremony next week.”

“Still?!” Meelo complained.

“Okay, who is ready for dinner?” Pema interrupted her son by coming into the dining room with a tray laden with bowls of soups. Jinora trotted behind with a tray of small salads and rice, their first course, and everyone took a bowl off each plate.

“Thank you for having me on such short notice, Pema,” Lin intoned politely as she carefully selected a bowl of miso from Pema’s tray.

“Oh, no problem at all,” Pema replied happily as she moved the tray between Kya and Bumi. “You’re basically family now.”

Lin grimaced but reached for her soup spoon without further comment.

Kya turned her attention to her brother beside her. “How was training today, Bum?”

“Ugh, horrible,” he groused. “Everything still hurts, and this sling is really starting to cramp my style. I’m starting to think I’m too old for this shit.”

“Bumi, language!” chided Tenzin from down the table, then added, “You’re doing fine. Nobody expects you to bounce back right away after your fight against the Red Lotus.”

“Yeah, well some think I should,” Bumi grumbled, and Kya watched as he glared pointedly at Meelo.

“It’s not my fault you’re old and weak!”

Kya felt her hackles go up. Spirits be dammed, she loved her niblings fiercely and would do almost anything for them, but sometimes she couldn’t stand Meelo’s bourgeoning adolescent boy attitude. “Hey—”

“Ohhh-kay,” Pema interjected in a falsely cheerly, excessively diplomatic tone. “Training is over for the day, so let’s just focus on dinner, okay? Bumi, if you’re still in pain I can get your some willowbark.”

“That’d be great, Pema, thanks.”

As Pema turned and disappeared back into the kitchen with her empty tray, Kya said, “I can take—”

“No, you’ve done enough,” Bumi said firmly, holding up a hand to stop her going further. “We both got kicked to hell last week, you need to rest, too.”

Kya wrinkled her nose but stayed quiet. Lin reached for the tea pot and carefully filled her tea cup. Before Kya could ask, Lin tilted the spout towards her cup to top her off.

“Thanks, Lin,” Kya said quietly.

“Don’t mention it.”

“Hey,” Bumi complained, “what about me?”

Lin rolled her eyes and with a flick of her fingers sent the clay teapot down the table towards Bumi. He caught it with a grin and filled his own cup. Pema came back into the dining room with a second pot and set it in front of Bumi.

“Here you go. Kya, could you—?”

Kya nodded wordlessly and felt for the water in the pot. She quickly agitated the molecules around the willowbark shavings and within seconds, steam began to seep out of the spout.

“Pour me some of that, too, would you?” she asked Bumi, and Bumi solicitously lined up a second cup to pour into as soon as the tea was ready. She leaned in closer to her older brother and murmured, “We can go for a smoke later if it doesn’t take the edge off.”

“Really, Kya?” Lin asked dryly from beside her. “I’m right here.”

“I didn’t say _what_ we’d be smoking,” Kya replied with a grin. “You have no need for concern, _officer._ ”

Ikki immediately began to fire off a thousand questions to her very disgruntled-looking father. Kya exchanged impish looks with Bumi and settled back into their soup and salads without comment as Tenzin begrudgingly explained the who, what, when, where, why, how, and stages of legality of lilyweed in Republic City and various other substances to his overeager child.

.

.

.

“I have to hand it to you, Jinora looked like she wanted to die on the spot,” Lin said later to Kya as she walked slowly to accommodate Kya’s slower-than-usual-gait. “She looked just like Tenzin. You haven’t lost your touch.”

Kya wiggled her fingers. “It’s my sacred duty as their aunt to embarrass both their father and them as often as possible.”

Lin scoffed fondly.

They reached the top of the stairs. “You’re headed out, right?” Kya asked. “Help me down to the water? I want to sit on the pier.”

“Why?”

“I just want to be close.”

Lin stared at her. “Is this a waterbender thing?”

“It is.”

“Alright.” Lin stomped her foot and a platform elevated them above the stairs. Kya leaned more heavily on her crutch as Lin carefully took them down the steep steps, arms moving in quick thrusts to pull the earth along.

Kya hated to admit how attractive Lin’s focus was when she did that. She wondered idly if Lin still had the muscles she did in their youth. She didn’t have time to dwell on it, though, because the platform disintegrated into dust as they approached the shore. With a few careful hand gestures, Lin slowly arrested their momentum so they came to a gentle stop at the very beginning of the pier.

“That good enough?” she asked.

Kya smiled at her and patted her shoulder with her good hand. She carefully crutched down the dock to where Lin had tied her boat and sat down heavily at the end. “Oof.”

Kya immediately put her feet over the edge; her bare feet barely skimmed the dark water and she felt an immense sense of calm as the brackish water licked her toes. She looked out over the darkness, towards the gleaming city, and sighed softly.

“Happy?” Lin asked wryly.

Kya looked up; the lights of the city reflected off Lin’s armor, dancing over it like strange, golden worms. “It’s nice. You should join me.”

“It won’t be nearly as nice for me as it would be for you.”

“Aw, c’mon, Lin. How long has it been since you did something fun?”

Lin huffed but to Kya’s complete surprise, she sat down with a clank of armor. She didn’t dangle her feet over the edge, but instead folded herself into a lotus pose and rested her forearms on her knees. Kya watched as Lin, too, stared over the water and towards the city she called home.

Companionable silence passed between them, broken only by the sounds of the city beyond and the gentle lapping of the water against the dock. Somewhere behind them on the cliff, katydids occasionally graveled out their last dying songs of summer.

It was peaceful. Tranquil. The complete opposite of the last six months.

“How long do you think we’ve got before someone else tries to take over the world?”

“Couple months,” Lin grunted, the slightest hint of amusement tingeing her voice. “If that.”

“Hopefully Korra will be better when that comes to pass.”

“She’s either better or she’s not,” Lin replied, not looking away from the city. “If she’s not, we’ll just have to pick up the slack.”

Kya huffed out a second little laugh and splashed at the water with her big toe. She leaned back on her arms and studied the twinkling lights beyond. While it was a shame they could no longer see the stars, there was something about the glittering lights of the city that brought her peace.

“You know, I’ve been to a lot of places all over the world,” the healer finally said, “but there’s something about that skyline that just makes me happy.”

“It doesn’t look anything like what it did when we were kids.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Kya allowed, not willing to let Lin’s gruffness get in the way of her happiness. “Republic City’s really grown up. Just like us.”

Lin looked over and shot her a wry little smile.

“Who’dve thought I’d be pushing sixty and fighting the flying megalomaniac our parents put away years ago?”

Lin blew a heavy breath out of her nose that Kya knew was one of tacit amusement.

“It’s good to see you again, Lin,” Kya continued, and turned properly to face her. “It’s good to have you back as part of the family again.”

Lin was quiet for a spell, so long that Kya was afraid she had said something wrong.

“Am I really a part of the family?” she asked finally.

“Of course you are. You were invited to dinner, weren’t you?”

“Tenzin brings in strays,” Lin said bluntly, “just like your father. You whole family collects them like a cat lady collects firekittens.”

“It’s just our way. And you’re not exactly a stray, Lin.”

Lin was quiet. Kya sighed and reached into the folds of her dress. She pulled out a joint and matchbox, the later of which she opened for a fresh match.

“ _Spirits,_ Kya, really?” Lin asked as Kya pushed the match against striker.

“You don’t know what’s in here,” Kya deadpanned, and lit the joint despite Lin’s clear misgivings.

“I’d have to be dead to ignore that smell,” the metalbender groused as Kya took her first big puff.

“It’s a tribal medicine,” Kya told her firmly, “and we’re technically on Air Nation lands, so you have no jurisdiction, anyway. Let me smoke in peace.”

Lin wrinkled her nose but didn’t respond. Kya rolled her eyes and blew a stream of smoke out her nose. Together the two women watched as the smoke spread out over the water and slowly dissipated.

“It’s not that I don’t mind you smoking it,” Lin finally said, as Kya took her second drag, “it’s just that the smoke gives me a headache.”

Kya glanced over at her and turned away from Lin. She blew the smoke out carefully so it wouldn’t waft back towards them, the snuffed the joint out on the weather-beaten boards of the dock.

“You’ve always been sensitive to scents,” Kya mused, and tucked the joint back in her dress as soon as it was cool enough. 

Lin grunted. Kya watched as Lin looked up at the moon high above the bay, then grimaced as she realized the time. “Monkeyfeathers, it’s getting late. I need to get home.”

“What, so you can get back to the station early in the morning?”

“Some of us have jobs to do,” Lin replied dryly as she carefully stood up.

“You know tomorrow’s a Saturday, right?”

Lin didn’t humor that with a response, instead just set about unwrapping the mooring lines on the little Republic City Police boat she had commandeered for the journey.

Kya sighed. “You know I’ll probably be going back to the South Pole soon, right?”

The younger woman looked up at her. “Really? Why?”

“Korra’s probably going to have to see Mom,” Kya said tiredly. “There’s only so much I’ve been able to do to counteract the effects of the poison, and we just don’t have the healing architecture or supplies here that she does. Korra needs time in a proper healing hut.”

Lin inclined her head in deference to Kya’s expert opinion. “When will you go?”

“After the ceremony. Next week, perhaps the week after. Tonraq and Senna will be coming along, of course.”

“Of course.” Lin frowned, her thin eyebrows scrunching up her face. Kya could just see the wrinkles forming at the corners of her eyes, and the frown lines that disappeared as Lin schooled her features and hopped into the boat.

Kya watched as it wobbled underneath her, but Lin put a steadying hand on the dock and then turned the key in the ignition. It idled happily beside the dock, ready to go, and the Chief looked up at her old friend.

“By the way, I’m glad to see you’re on the mend, too. Zaheer did quite a number on you.”

“What’s this, actual emotional complexity from Lin Beifong?” Kya asked teasingly. “I’m going to have to see that acupuncturist you saw in Zaofu, clearly he is a miracle worker.

“It’s been known to happen, you know.”

“I’ll have to check to see if the wooly pigs have sprouted wings.”

Lin rolled her eyes so hard they almost popped out of her skull. “I’ll see you at the ceremony, Kya.”

Kya gave her a little salute, an annoying little trait she had picked up from Bumi over the years. Lin’s lips ticked upwards, and she settled down in the driver’s seat. The engine roared to life and she putted away from the dock, then picked up speed as she headed back to the city.

The waterbender waited until Lin was halfway across the bay before pulling her joint back out and lit it with a brand new match. She watched as the boat got smaller and smaller against the horizon, and only flicked the roach away when Lin’s tiny figure was no longer visible on the docks.


	2. The Proposition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kya and Lin reunite a few weeks after The (First) Kuvira Incident and get more than they bargained for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during the Turf Wars comics, so minor spoilers for those (but nothing too big). Also this is now a three-shot, because I have no self control!
> 
> CW for a bar, and alcohol.

“You know, when you left with Korra for the South Pole, I didn’t think it would be three years before I saw you again.”

The bar was loud, and dingy, and packed full of people, but Kya would have known that voice anywhere. She looked just in time to see Lin Beifong belly her way up to the bar beside her and flag the bartender down for a drink.

“Lin!” Kya exclaimed happily. She almost went in for a hug, then decided better of it. Lin wasn’t dressed in her police armor, a rarity for her, but her shirt and jacket were incredibly simple.

The muted green and black of her clothes fit her color palate but otherwise did nothing for or against her. Clearly Suyin hadn’t yet gotten her hands on Lin’s Republic City wardrobe.

Amused with her own thoughts, Kya settled back down on her stool. “It’s good to see you, Lin. What are you doing here? This isn’t exactly your normal haunt.”

“I do happen to be a human being,” Lin said humorlessly, and she told the approaching bartender, “a glass of baijiu, please, qingxiang if you have it.”

The bartender nodded and went off to get the requested item.

Kya quirked her eyebrow in Lin’s direction.

A pause.

“Fine. My normal bar got destroyed my Kuvira’s mecha.”

“The truth comes out,” Kya hummed in amusement. “It’s okay, Lin, you can admit you’re slumming it with the rest of us, I won’t tell.”

“Stop it,” Lin said grouchily, “I’ve had a long day.” She passed over her coins as the bartender came back with her drink. “Spirits, this whole thing has been a damned disaster.”

“You’re not wrong. But hey, did you hear? Zhu Li is running for president.”

“Varrick’s assistant?” Lin asked, turning to face her with a shocked expression, glass in hand.

“Yup.”

“Well, it’ll be damn easier working with her if she wins than it will with Raiko, I’ll tell you that.” Lin leaned an arm against the bar with the casual swagger Kya had watched her develop over the years, then took a sip of her drink. “He was impossible before, but now he’s even worse.”

“Election years do that to people,” Kya said with a sigh. “At least Korra and Asami have been able to bully him into providing more assistance for the camps.”

Lin leaned in closer, cradling her glass in one hand. “Tell it to me straight, Kya. How bad are they? The evacuee camps.”

The waterbender raised a shocked eyebrow. “You haven’t been?”

Lin shook her head. “We’ve been too busy keeping the city from falling apart, with all the new triad activity, and my metalbenders have been stretched thin assisting with the cleanup.”

Kya hummed softly and ran a finger through the condensation on her glass. “Well…The United Forces have been in charge of the evacuee camps. I’m sure you know that. It’s been orderly so far, and we’ve managed to keep people relatively healthy. We’ve done a couple of deliveries, fixed a couple of broken bones, but we can only do so much with limited sanitation and facilities. It’s only a matter of time before someone brings in septapox or something else and we have an outbreak on our hands.”

Lin grimaced and took another sip of her drink. “And many of the evacuees have lost their jobs, from what I understand?”

“Yes. Kuvira destroyed some of the major factories that employed nonbenders. President Raiko is trying to pass emergency spending…”

“But it’s tight enough as it is,” the police chief finished for her.

Kya nodded.

“Thus the push to get everyone into housing.”

“Yes. But even with the fastest construction benders they’ve got, it will be months before the housing is complete.”

Lin’s free hand came up to massage her temple as her frown deepened. “Su has enough problems right now, what with rebuilding Zaofu and preparing for the upcoming Earth Nation elections. I doubt she can spare anybody.”

“No, I think we’re on our own for this one.”

The Chief of Police sighed and slouched back onto her stool. She knocked back the rest of her drink and set it on the bar, then glanced over at Kya. “So what are your plans, then? How long will you be in Republic City this time?”

Kya shrugged. “I’ll stay for as long as the evacuees need me.”

“And after?”

“Honestly? I’m not quite sure,” Kya admitted sheepishly. She ran her finger along the rim of her glass, the condensation making the glass sing briefly under her touch. What _was_ she going to do?

“Back to the South Pole, then?”

The waterbender shrugged again. “I was just there for a long time, helping Mom with Korra. And it was nice, being back with Mom again, but…” She trailed off, uncertain. “I sort of liked being up here with the boys and the kids, you know? Traveling again, seeing the world…”

“Let me guess,” Lin said with a dry smile, “the nomad’s feet are wandering.”

“I don’t know.” Kya hesitated uncharacteristically. “Sleeping outside just doesn’t have the appeal it did when I was younger. What I _do_ know is that after Zaheer I _don’t_ want to fight anymore. I’m too old for it.” She paused, reluctant. “I think I’m slipping.”

“Slipping?” Lin asked, a grey eyebrow arching in amusement as her jade eyes danced, “or are you too soft from spending all those years down south with Katara?”

“Hey! I’ll have you know Korra and I spent a lot of time sparring together, once she got old enough.”

Lin recalled the time, what felt like eons ago now, that Korra had missed an Equalist and slapped her full in the face with a misplaced water whip. “…I thought some of her techniques felt familiar.”

“They weren’t all Mom, I’ll tell you that much.”

The bartender came over and offered to refill Lin’s glass; she nodded, and placed two coins down on the bar when he returned. He palmed them into the till, and she took up her glass.

“So what about you?” Kya asked as Lin took her first sip. “What are _your_ plans after all this mess is settled?”

Lin’s brow wrinkled in annoyance. “Spirits. If the Avatar can keep the world from falling apart for once, I suppose I’ll finally get back to my proper job.”

Kya laughed, although it was barely audible over the growing din. It was getting late, and the bar was filling up with more and more people. “Maybe you should just retire and offer up your services to protect her permanently. I’m sure Asami could pay you more than Republic City does.”

“And watch those two lovebirds canoodle all day? No thanks.”

“But you’re getting close to retirement, right? Surely you’ve thought about what you’re going to do next.”

“As much as you, it seems.” Kya watched as Lin stared into her drink in some sort of contemplative trance; her nostrils flared slightly, and then she pulled out of whatever had captured her thoughts. “Besides, Saikhan isn’t ready to be Chief again. I haven’t forgotten his stunts while I was gone.”

“Oh, give him a break. That was four years ago!”

“And I don’t forget that easily.”

"What about Mako?" Kya asked.

"He's too young. Nowhere near ready."

Kya sucked on her teeth and shook her head softly. “You’re going to have to give up the mantle sooner or later. Saikhan or Mako, they'll never be _fully_ ready, you’re just going to have to throw them in the deep end and see if they sink.”

The metalbender across from her scowled and quickly tipped back her drink. Kya had clearly hit a nerve. She watched as Lin quickly regretted the shot, choking the stream of baijiu down as the alcohol burned her throat.

Kya reached over and nudged her foot gently after she finished coughing. “You seriously haven’t given it any thought?”

Lin gave her a look over the top of her glass.

“Well, if you finally retire, maybe you’ll finally have some free time. You could pick up a hobby, do a group sport…” Kya paused for dramatic effect. “Maybe get laid?”

“Kya.” Lin’s voice was a growl of warning that did absolutely nothing to dissuade her.

“What?” the waterbender drawled before nudging Lin’s leg again. “I’m serious, Lin. Sexual health is no laughing matter. You and Tenzin used to go at it like rabbits. Please tell me you’ve gotten some since then.”

“Spirits, Kya!” Lin exclaimed, her blush spreading from her ears and across her cheeks. “How do you even know that?”

“My room was near yours in the women’s dorm. I have ears, Lin. You two weren’t slick.”

Lin put her face in her palm and grumbled something unintelligible. She was bright red, even in the dim glow of the bar lights. It was hard to tell if it was the alcohol or the embarrassment, but Lin was cute flushed, and Kya couldn’t help but poke a bit more.

“I’m just saying, maybe when you’re not absolutely all consumed by work you can think about yourself for once….and maybe you could pass that on to someone.”

“I don’t need someone else in my life to make me happy.”

“No?” the waterbender asked, “or is that what you tell yourself to justify your solitude?”

“Why are you so obsessed all of a sudden?” Lin asked flatly, in the carefully monitored way her voice turned when clearly struggling to keep her emotions in check. “Are you volunteering yourself for the position?”

“Maybe I am!”

The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Kya could now feel _her own_ face getting flush, although she hoped it would be harder to tell.

A beat passed between them, long and awkward and pregnant with possibilities.

Lin looked at her incredulously. “Seriously?”

Kya tried to shrug the sudden awkwardness off like she would a heavy parka. “Why not?”

“You want to—” Lin floundered, obviously and, perhaps impressively, at a loss for words.

“Why not?” Kya repeated.

Lin’s mouth open, then closed, then opened, then closed. She reminded Kya of the koi fish back in the pond on Air Temple Island. Finally she stood, and slammed her glass on the bartop so hard Kya thought it might break. She leaned in close against Kya, her breath hot against her ear, and growled,

“Don’t mock me.”

Kya’s heart sank.

Lin pulled away, and stalked towards the door without finishing her drink.

“What—Lin—wait—” Kya quickly knocked back the rest of her drink and followed Lin into the warm summer night of Republic City.

It was so like the night they had shared on the dock three years ago, the cicadas and katydids loudly humming their songs. The lamps had been lit, but the air was so thick and cloying with humidity that their yellow light practically swam. This section of the city, one of the only places left untouched by Kuvira’s mech, was bustling with people, which made it hard for Kya to keep up with Lin’s imposing gait.

“Lin! Hey—Lin, c’mon!”

“Don’t patronize me, Kya,” Lin snapped over her shoulder.

“I’m not!” Kya said with frustration. She put on a burst of speed and grabbed Lin’s arm, then tugged her unceremoniously into a nearby alley.

Lin angrily snatched her wrist out of Kya’s grasp. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Getting you to stop, just for a second,” was the waterbender’s desperate reply. “Breathe, Lin.”

Lin scowled and averted her gaze towards the street, clearly not interested in meeting Kya’s gaze.

Kya sighed and pulled away, leaned on the wall opposite to give her space. A cornered Lin, she knew from experience, was a violent Lin. “Why did you freak out?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lin said sarcastically, flipping her hand up into what Kya had come to understand was a Hereditary Beifong Gesticulation, “maybe because you said you wanted to date me!”

The waterbender bit back her own defensiveness and folded her arms across her chest in what she hoped was a placating manner. “Is that such a bad thing?”

Lin crossed her arms over her chest as well, but the move was all defense. “I’m not some bicycle for all of Aang’s children to sleep with. One time, one moment of weakness, and now Bumi won’t let me live it down.”

_“What?”_

“Did Bumi put you up to this?” Lin asked, angry again, not bothering to clarify. “How much did you bet with him that you could sleep with me?”

“What are you _talking_ about?” Kya asked, her mind racing. “Wait—wait—did you—did you _sleep_ with Bumi?”

“What, he didn’t tell you?” Lin asked bitterly.

Kya gawked. “Spirits undying, you _slept_ with _Bumi!”_ Her brain boggled. Lin! _Lin_ had slept with _Bumi!_ “When did this happen?!”

“A while ago,” Lin mumbled, her face turning red. With embarrassment, Kya realized, not with anger. The arms across her chest tightened. “After Uncle Sokka—you know what? No. I’m not discussing this with you.”

“Lin I had no idea,” Kya said softly, and instinctively closed the distance between them. She gently touched Lin’s arm, and when she didn’t shy away, she rubbed her thumb against the fabric of her jacket. “I swear I didn’t. Bumi never told me.”

Lin glowered at the ground, determinedly not looking at her.

“And even if he had, I never would have teased you about it like that,” Kya continued. She squeezed Lin’s arm. “Who you’ve slept with in the past is none of my concern. As long as you were safe and enjoyed it, I’m happy for you.”

Lin got, if possible, even redder.

“And for the record, I would date you anyway. The fact you fucked both of my brothers notwithstanding.”

“Enough!” Lin finally said, pulling her arm out of Kya’s grasp and turning away from her. “Why would you even suggest that?”

“It’s not like I’m a random stranger,” Kya reasoned. “I’ve already seen you at your worst. What more is there to see after that?”

The metalbender before her choked on air. She started back down the alley, towards the crowded street once more. “No.”

“Why?” Kya asked defiantly, following after her. “You haven’t even given me a chance!”

“What chance is there to give, Kya?” Lin snapped. “The city is in shambles, the Earth Kingdom is once again teetering on the brink of ruin, and we’re both too busy with our duties to even think about the future. You said it yourself. We both said it.”

“No, that’s what you said,” Kya said patiently. “But honestly, what better time than now to fuck the last Cloudkid and complete your bingo card?”

Lin froze in her tracks, her expression stormy.

“I’m kidding,” the waterbender stressed as it became obvious she overstepped. “I’m sorry, that was a joke. A joke, Lin.”

“A bad one.”

Kya shrugged helplessly.

Lin turned around and ran a frustrated hand through her hair, pulling a few strands loose. “And what if we did, hm? What would we get out of it, besides awkwardness and distrust?”

“A good time?”

The pinched expression that appeared on Lin’s face said it all.

Kya sighed and reached out and took her hand in hers. “You don’t have to sleep with me, Lin. Even I don’t think our friendship could survive that right now. But you could give me a chance.”

“And why should I do that?”

The bitterness in her tone cut Kya to the core.

“It would provide a welcome distraction for all this,” the waterbender told her softly with a free-hand gesture at the world around them. When Lin didn’t object, she carefully interlaced the fingers on their clasped hands. “Beyond that it…it would give us something to look forward to.”

She paused, looking at Lin beseechingly.

“Something for the future?”

Lin finally looked at her; the metalbender’s gaze was heavy on hers, and Kya stared defiantly back. She wanted this, she realized, more than she ever thought she might. And she thought that maybe, from the way she was acting, Lin did, too.

Finally, after a long silence, and exasperated breath sighed from Lin’s lungs. She bowed her head in acquiescence and growled out, “You’re serious.”

“Maybe I am,” Kya allowed.

She could see Lin fighting with herself; for someone who compartmentalized her emotions as much as she did, Lin was remarkably transparent. The silence stretched between them as Lin came to whatever conclusion she needed to, then, suddenly,

“Fine.”

Kya blinked in surprise. “Really?”

“One date,” Lin told her, and once again pulled herself from Kya’s grasp. However this time it was a gentle extrication, not the violent one of just minutes before. “But I have conditions. No funny business, nothing stupid—and for Spirit’s sake, nothing flashy or extravagant. I don’t need to be in the papers.”

“That’s a place we both want to avoid,” Kya replied evenly. She tucked her hands into her pockets and observed Lin evenly, despite the traitorous dance her heart was doing in her chest. (She hoped, she really, _really_ hoped, that Lin’s boots were muffling her seismic sense.)

“I’ll tell you what,” the healer said after a moment, when both of them had fallen quiet. “You decide. The date, the time, the location. The activity. That’s all you. I only have one stipulation.”

“And what’s that?” Lin asked sarcastically.

“You don’t wear your police uniform.”

Lin’s veneer cracked, just for a second, and huffed out the tiniest of laughs in response. “I think I can manage that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading Part 2! Part 3 will be the date, of course. ;)


	3. Part 3: The Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lin and Kya spend a low-speed evening at an art auction.

It was not, as Kya had thought might be the case, like pulling teeth to get Lin to agree to a time, date, and location for their date.

This shocked her, as Kya thought it would be absolutely impossible to get Lin to actually act on her promise. But no, three days after their discussion in the alleyway a telegram from Lin had appeared on her breakfast plate, detailing the name, location, and activity that would make up their date night.

Lin even picked something that Kya thought was interesting—a gallery showing of art that would be auctioned off to support the rebuilding effort. A show of all the top artists from Republic City and around the world.

It was _very_ Lin, Kya decided, as she walked through the streets to the art gallery in question. It was about Republic City, it was business-adjacent, and it was refined enough to fit inside Lin’s carefully honed image. The showing was on a Friday night, and the city was alive around Kya as she walked. Kids scampered through the streets, clutching toys and balls and little packages of take out, and for a second she could almost forget the destruction just blocks away.

Lin was waiting for her outside of the gallery when she arrived, bathed in the white light coming through the large front windows. Her hair was back, pinned differently than usual, and she was wearing the outfit that had been much-reported on by the papers covering Varrick’s wedding. It looked like she had actually given thought to her appearance for once.

“That outfit looks much sharper in person than in the papers,” Kya told Lin as she approached, and was delighted to see Lin blush ever so slightly.

“I can’t hide anything from you, can I?”

“No, you can’t,” Kya replied with some amusement, and reached up and brushed an imaginary fuzz off Lin’s collar. There was no fuzz, of course, Lin looked immaculate. She just wanted to be close to her.

“You look…good,” Lin admitted shakily, as if she was suddenly unsure of how to pay a compliment that wasn’t the gruff ‘good job, kid’ she doled out to Korra and her crew. “Not that you don’t always look, good, it’s just this time you—spirits. I’m rambling.”

Lin was nervous, Kya thought gleefully. Oh, that was _very_ cute.

“It’s just me, Lin,” she told her gently, and carefully took her hand from where it hung by her side.

Lin immediately tugged her hand from Kya’s grasp and looked pained. _“Don’t.”_

Kya had to admit that stung a little, but Lin was Lin. She had her rules. Kya dropped her hand to her side and nodded towards the doors. “Shall we go inside?”

“Let’s.”

They pushed inside, where a bored-looking attendant was checking tickets. Lin procured two from the inside of her jacket and after he declared them fit, together Kya and Lin passed into the main gallery beyond. The gallery, which was more of a cavernous atrium, had walls lined with neatly hung paintings and quilts and other mixed media pieces. People milled around the sculptures in the center, clutching small plates of food and little glasses of drinks as they talked and compared pieces.

“Oh my,” Kya said softly as she observed the scene. She turned to Lin, “How did you find out about this?”

Lin tilted her head towards one of the complicated metal sculptures in the center of the room. “My nephew is selling a piece for the relief effort.”

“Oh, Huan?”

Lin nodded.

“Is he here?”

Lin craned her neck, looking for her nephew amongst the individuals and small groups littering the room. “I don’t see him.”

“It’s possible he’s stepped away,” Kya said neutrally, although she secretly wanted to meet Lin’s aloof artist nephew now that he was old enough to form coherent sentences and carry on a decent conversation. “But that’s okay. Let’s not worry about him now, let’s look at the art instead.”

Her date nodded in agreement and they slowly made their way counterclockwise around the room. Kya was delighted to find that Lin was as interested in the art as she was. She also found that Lin had a discerning eye for framing and color. The police chief skirted past the metallic Republic City skyline Kya was inspecting and instead stopped in front of the next piece. It was a beautiful watercolor of blacks, greys, and whites that had been sprinkled with salt and other minerals to make the colors bloom. The painting overlaid with what seemed like hundreds of feet of ombre-dyed macramé threads in every color imaginable, forming a flat little spiral which circled and then disappeared into the central white void of the canvas.

“That’s beautiful,” Kya said softly.

“‘There’s still art at the end of the world,’” Lin quoted from the small plaque besides.

Kya found herself smiling. “Life goes on.”

“So it does.” Lin hesitated a moment, then lifted the bidder sheet from where it dangled underneath the piece to inspect it. Kya glanced too and nearly recoiled; the price tag was hefty, but then again it _was_ all going to charity.

Lin looked at the card a second longer, then took out a fountain pen from her pocket and carefully marked down a bid. Kya glanced at that, too; it was well above the starting price on the sheet.

“Really?” Kya asked, surprised that this of all pieces would be the one that called to her.

Lin looked at her askance as she capped her pen and slipped it back into her jacket. “You’ve never seen my apartment before, have you?”

“I can’t say that I have.”

“Su isn’t the only one who likes art.”

Kya made a mental note to visit Lin’s apartment.

They continued their perambulation around the room, inspecting tapestries and oil paintings and even a mixed media piece made from carefully sewn acupuncture needles.

“Su might like that,” Kya said, with a nod at the acupuncture needles.

“It’s certainly modern enough for her.” Although she glanced at the sheet, Lin did not put in a bid. Instead she turned to Kya. “Have you seen anything that catches your eye?”

“Not really,” her date replied, even as she stopped to examine a small line of pottery against the back wall. “It’s all very beautiful, but I’m not really a material girl.”

“All that travelling,” Lin quipped.

Kya shrugged airily. “You know me. I don’t need things to make me happy.”

“Just lilyweed.”

Kya flashed her a cheeky grin that made Lin almost run into one of their fellow patrons.

It was at that moment that Lin’s nephew materialized from the crowd like a broody magician and came to join them beside the pottery. He dyed hair, held back formerly in a queue, swished behind him as bowed to his aunt. “Aunt Lin. Thank you for coming.”

Lin bowed back, and Kya followed her example.

“Your mother isn’t here, is she?” Lin asked him in lieu of greeting.

“No,” Huan said, looking annoyed. “She’s busy in Zaofu.”

Kya glanced sharply over at Lin, critical. “I thought you’d patched it up with Su?”

“I have, but that doesn’t mean I can listen to her bloviate about things I’ve already looked at for the next quarter of an hour.”

Kya cracked a smile, despite herself, and saw Huan smile, too. She turned to him and said, “You probably don’t remember me, but I’m Kya. I met you when you were very little.”

Huan bowed to her, but not nearly with the depth that he had given Lin. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He looked between them curiously. “Are you a fellow collector or her lover?”

“She’s just a friend,” Lin said so quickly it almost gave Kya whiplash, despite her own shocked amusement at Lin’s nephew’s bluntness.

Huan’s pierced eyebrow rose but he said nothing more. He turned back to Kya. “If that’s the case, are you here to purchase or to browse?”

“Just to look, I think,” Kya admitted. “I’m not as much a fan as Su or Lin, but I can appreciate what I see.”

“Why don’t you show us your sculpture, kid?” Lin interrupted.

Huan was happy to. He led them over to his offering for the auction, a ten foot tall behemoth of twisted iron, aluminum, and steel. Parts of it had been allowed to rust, while others had been scoured so shiny and new they were almost reflective. A bulbous section was mounted high on towering tendrils, which fastened to a heavy earthen base that bristled with nubs that looked like stalagmites.

“What do you see?” Huan asked.

Kya stood with Lin and tilted her head to the left, trying to understand the shapes she was seeing. “Is it…” She paused and grasped at her right arm with her left, uncertain, as she inspected the twisted, chunky, and undulating tendrils. “Um. A jellyfish?”

Huan sighed in the tone of a very put upon artist, and looked imploringly at Lin.

Lin crossed her arms over her chest and studied the sculpture more closely. “A lion turtle,” she finally proclaimed, “held up by the pillars of bending it taught the human race.”

Yes!” Huan crowed in victory. “Thank you!” At their stare he coughed quickly and folded his arms, just like his aunt. “I mean. Yes. Exactly.”

Kya glanced over at Lin in amazement. “How can you even begin to see that?”

Lin arched her eyebrow and gave the older woman a look of smug satisfaction. “This is good work, Huan,” she told her nephew. “You should be proud.”

Huan looked, briefly, like he was going to cry from the praise.

The spoke with Huan for a few more minutes, then finished their turn around the gallery. Nothing more interested Lin, and Kya didn’t see anything that caught her eye, either. Examination complete, Kya accompanied Lin to the auctioneer table where Lin dutifully copied down her name and contact information in case she won the piece she had bid on.

When Lin straightened she asked Kya stiffly, “Are we done here?”

“I suppose.”

Kya couldn’t keep the forlorn note out of her voice. Being done here would mean their date would be over, which mean they would part, and Lin would go home, and she would have to go back to Air Temple Island and not get to hear any more of Lin’s snide commentary on art or passersby or politics until Spirits knew when.

They stepped out of the gallery into the night, which had cooled considerably but was not yet cold enough for a wrap. Someone recognized Lin on their way by her at the door and stopped her; Kya stepped away to give them privacy, and pulled her wrap off her waist as she went. She didn’t need it, but she twisted it around her shoulders and settled inside of it anyway, just to give herself something to do.

Lin, a consummate politician, quickly extricated herself from her government acquaintance and made her way over to where Kya was standing. “I’m sorry about that. Someone people don’t know when to leave work at work.”

 _As if Lin did?_ Kya thought wryly. Instead she said, “It’s okay. Is this it for the night?”

Lin looked strangely sad. “I suppose it is.” She paused. “I’ll walk you to the harbor?”

Kya nodded, and together the two women slowly began the mile or so trek downtown to the only part of the port that had survived Kuvira’s wrath. Their feet clipped over the cobblestone path, and Kya realized with surprise that Lin was wearing metal-bottomed dress shoes. Smart, and functionally.

They passed through a sleepy section of town with its daytime shops all closed up for the evening. As she watched Lin habitually glance over each shop to check the roll-downs for signs of breaking and entering, Kya finally said, “Thank you, Lin.”

“Hm?”

“For tonight,” Kya clarified. “I had fun.”

“I…did too.” Lin sounded surprised with herself.

They walked quietly into a more rowdy part of town, where the late night bars were still open and street carts hawked their contents to anyone who got too closed. This part of Republic City had been more recently redeveloped, and the pedestrian-only street became asphalt instead of cobblestones.

Lin hesitated as they waited for a throng of drunk revelers to pass across the street from one bar to the next. She looked over at Kya and nodded in the direction of one of the food carts. “Are you hungry?”

Kya realized that yes, she _was_ hungry. “Starving, actually.”

“Me, too.”

They bought takeaway containers of octopus fritters and fried rice—Lin paid—and ate them straight from the container as they continued down towards the docks. The street turned back from asphalt to cobblestones as they got closer to the water.

“God this reminds me of when we were kids,” Kya said suddenly as shore came into view. “Do you remember when Bumi and I would bully Tenzin into sneaking into the city, then we’d meet up with you at late night arcade?”

“I remember,” Lin said softly from beside her, and Kya saw a smile pulling up the corner of her lips.

“It was what? Three blocks from here?”

“Five,” Lin said, and gestured with an officer’s direction to the west without even glancing at the street signs. “Ping’s was at corner of Wan and 15th. So five blocks west, and then up another two from here.”

“It was the only place Bumi could smoke us at anything,” Kya remembered fondly.

Kya and Lin met gazes and said simultaneously, “No bending allowed.”

“Mom was so mad when she caught us coming back that one time.”

“I remember,” Lin said again, that smile still tugging on her lips. “You were all grounded for a month.”

“We were! I still don’t know how you snuck out without Toph feeling you leave.”

“I think she let it happen,” Lin admitted, and she tossed her empty container and disposable chopsticks into a nearby garbage can. “We were what, ten?”

“You were eleven, I think,” Kya replied, thinking hard. “It was fall, that first time, so Tenzin might have just turned twelve. I was sixteen, because Mom threatened to cancel my seventeenth birthday party. And Bumi—”

“—was on leave from the United Forces,” Lin interjected as she, too, remembered more details of the escapade. “It was the first time he had come back. So he would have been, what? Nineteen? Twenty?”

“Nineteen, I think. Yeah, that sounds right.”

The two of them shared comfortable glances, and then started to laugh. Lin’s laugh, Kya though, was magical, throaty and rich and so, so rare. She wanted to swim in it, like the pond of a desert oasis.

“Whatever happened to that place?” she asked.

“Closed a couple of years ago,” Lin intoned as they drew up to the main thoroughfare and walked towards the dock where the Air Acolytes pulled the ferry in. “The owner’s kids didn’t want to keep the business, so he sold it to a developer instead. The whole block’s apartments now.”

“Oh,” Kya murmured, disappointed. She had sort of hoped it would still be around. “That’s a shame.”

Lin shrugged her shoulders, upsetting the fall of her jacket. “That’s Republic City.”

“I suppose it is.”

The rest of the walk to the docks was quiet, save for the sound of the city behind then and the click of Lin’s shoes on the cobblestones. The last boat of the night to Air Temple Island was waiting at the dock, and with only five minutes left before it was scheduled to depart, Kya had to get going.

“I guess that’s the night, isn’t it?” she asked as they came to a stop at the ramp, turning to face Lin directly.

“I…suppose it is.”

“Lin—”

“Kya, I—”

They both stopped, awkwardly, and waited for the other to continue.

“You first,” Lin said quietly.

Kya titled her head in acknowledgement. “I had a wonderful time. I mean it, this was the most fun I’ve had in months.”

Lin nodded.

“Thank you,” Kya said, and reached over to give shoulder a squeeze. Lin caught her hand, covering her fingers in her own.

“Kya, I—” Lin looked around, as if checking to see if someone was watching them, and drew Kya’s hand down between them. But instead of letting go, she held on.

Kya didn’t dare to breathe.

When Lin spoke, her voice was soft, her phrase short and to the point. “I, too, had a wonderful time.”

A pit of dread formed in the waterbender’s stomach. “But?”

“No buts,” Lin told her seriously. “I just—I’d…well…” She glanced nervously down the dock again, then up at the ship. Kya was no earthbender, but should could feel Lin’s pulse racing in the thumb pressed to her hand.

Okay, nervous disaster Lin Beifong was officially the cutest thing ever, especially when it was directed at her and not at Tenzin.

“Spirits, you’re bad at this,” Kya teased gently, and ran a finger soothingly along Lin’s wrist. “If you’d like to go on a second date, you can just say.”

Lin grimaced. “You not I’m not good at all this—“ Lin faltered and gestured hopelessly with her free hand. “—you know.”

“Emotional stuff?” Kya supplied.

“Yeah.”

“Then it’s a good thing I am.” Kya grasped her other hand, and drew Lin’s full attention to her. “I’d love to go on a second date with you, Lin. And I’d like to kiss you now, if that’s alright.”

“I’d…” Lin’s gaze softened slightly, imperceptible to anyone else. “I’d like that.”

Kya chuckled to herself and moved in, cupping Lin’s cheek with her hand. She trailed a thumb over Lin’s high cheekbone, then, before either of them could chicken out, Kya leaned in and kissed her. Lin’s lips were rough and chapped against her own, but she melted under Kya’s touch and pressed back in response before Kya could pull away.

Lin’s hand settled on Kya’s waist, a welcome touch that Kya had not anticipated. A second later Lin was pulling her close, and a moment after that deepened the kiss. Kya made a soft noise of surprise in the back of her throat but gamely kissed her back, cupping Lin’s face with both hands before pulling back after several long, glorious moments.

“Woah there,” Kya said breathlessly as she struggled to catch her breath in a way that swimming had never once caused her to gasp before. “Now who’s going too fast?”

“Sorry,” Lin said gruffly, pulling away and looking to the side shamefully. “I just...realized I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.”

Kya’s heart stuttered in her chest at the surprise confession, and with the way Lin immediately glanced at her, she knew the police chief had felt it through those special, metal-bottomed shoes.

“Kya?” Lin asked hesitantly.

“Well don’t just stand there and apologize,” Kya said finally, slyly sliding a hand around Lin’s waist and drawing her back in. “If it was that good, come here and do it again.”

To her great pleasure, Lin did exactly that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all folks! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for all your support, I certainly enjoyed writing it! If you had told me last week I would have written ~9,500 words of Kyalin fanfic in 36 hours, I would have tossed you into the bay myself. But that's life I suppose.
> 
> There are some things I wanted to write in this that I never got around to, so I might even write some extra scenes and post em as their own separate oneshots. Ya never know!

**Author's Note:**

> If you like what you read, a review/comment is always appreciated :)


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